If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

. Last year I spoke about the little girl that my wife and I have been trying to adopt from China for five years to no avail, caught in red tape and creeping bureaucracy. She is just a name to us, a shadow, an empty child's room that has gathered dust. Our little son always asks for his absent sister, year after year. Now, after much pushing through obstacles, wrangling with regulations, negotiating, simple waiting (there are so many families in like position, and we did not want to push ahead of others, so waited our turn like everyone else), procedures and endless forms, this year's earthquake and adventures, adoption and immigration lawyers and legal fees to fix the tangled legal snafu, there is a good chance (too soon to be sure yet) that she will come to us by the end of this year!!

If all goes forward (we'll see), 51 year old me is gonna be daddy to a 1 year old! :shock:

Some things in life are WORTH PROTESTING FOR, SHOUTING FOR, FIGHTING FOR ... WITHOUT VIOLENCE OR ANGER, OF COURSE! Be it a wrong to right, a war to stop, an injustice to prevent, a disease to cure ... it is okay to take to the streets (like those monks in Burma did), fight the good fight ... if peacefully.

Yet today's passage from the Xin Xin Ming tells us:

If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

Having no opinions, nofor or against ... yet standing up for what's right? Sounds like a great contradiction! These need not be in the least! Opinions with equanimity, pushing forward with no place to get, protest hand-in-hand with total acceptance! RESISTING FREE OF ALL RESISTANCE! Of course, one has to be careful ... for those cluttered boxes of adoption documents in the scene below could stand for the clutter of the mind that can result in trying times! Always know that white, clean, pristine space that holds all that and shines through all!

Seen with a Buddha's eye ... there is no contradiction at all.

Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Thank you again Jundo.

Just two days ago I was chanting metta and inverted a couple of the lines. No harm done. But then it reminded me of the zazenkai a few weeks or so ago where you and Mina had received some news about the adoption. I had a heavy heart and then added you two to my metta. I am so happy to hear things are moving forward for you guys and am so thankful for this teaching.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Originally Posted by Jundo

...there is a good chance (too soon to be sure yet) that she will come to us by the end of this year!!

I will pray that it all works out. Such trying should be rewarded, especially for such a good thing. Sometimes, these things don't work out, and there seems to be no justice in the universe... but then there are other times when things work out so well you could swear something was helping you out. I hope the latter is your case.

Originally Posted by Jundo

51 year old me is gonna be daddy to a 1 year old! :shock:

8) No big deal... 8) My uncle and his wife are about to have a baby, and his youngest is seventeen! Life rolls along... :arrow:

Very helpful talk for me, thank you and Gassho. I had the best sit in a long time after that.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Thank you Jundo for this talk. In the beginning of my Zen practice this question of "why bother if everything is already perfect" was really bugging me. It still does sometimes, but not as often. You just get up and do it.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

You may have said it one hundred times, but I heard it as if for the first time thanks to your sharing your family's struggle with us. Gassho for that and best of luck in -- I hope! -- the home stretch.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

As my mum used to say 'Where there's a will, there's a way' and as you say 'without anger'. A great lesson Jundo and we are all willing you your way! ( I think the Chinese call it Yi)
Heartfelt best wishes for your family.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Having no preferences, accepting things as they are. When we see the world as it truly is, compassion arises naturally, and with compassion our action comes out of the requirements of every moment. So even without preferences and opinions we not just keep sitting under the tree. I believe
_()_
Peter

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Those are wonderful news Jundo.
We have also started the paperwork to adopt a child -our second one- and considering how slow these processes are I'll become a father again in four or five years, so close to fifty too. We'll have to exchange notes on how to cope with it!

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Thank you for this! I needed to hear this. Good luck with your hopefully soon to be daughter

I've been struggling with Ango this year.. I knew I would, I hold my preferences very, very closely. Sometimes not so much. Sometimes practice comes easily, but other times, it is a struggle. On one hand I want to fight for what I want. Then it's easy to pervert this teaching into just laying back and giving up... but it's the clarity of this teaching that's cutting through that saying "adjust to reality and keep pushing on". Easier said than done. Sometimes my ego just wants to sit in a corner and yell if it doesn't get what it wants.

But the key is to never give up. That's what keeps me coming back. So many people can start, but there are few finishers, not that this ever ends (well while we are living I suppose )

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Keep on going Risho, its all preactice. Seeing the struggle, noticing what we do, why we do what we do, thats all wonderful practice. And just as you say, return to the path, walk with all your fellow treeleafers...
Gassho
Peter

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

I hope everything works out and the new arrival will be very lucky. These will be exciting times for your family! You have been fighting the good fight.

With regards to the general point of people standing up and taking action for what they believe in did I understand things Correctly that when we do this we should also have a stillness within?

Hi Ray,

I would say that the central pivot point of our Way is to ALWAYS have stillness within.

However, the meaning of "stillness" is perhaps a little special in a Zenny sort of way ...

That's because it is a "Stillness" that expresses itself as both life's stillness and life's motion ... a Peace of One Piece found in peace and even in sometime war and chaos.

It is a "Stillness" found both sitting quietly and unmoving on the Zafu or running toward the goal line on the football field or running like hell from life's hungry tigers!

It is a "Stillness within" that we may come to see is not limited by "within" or "without", but sweeps in and vibrantly dances all the world.

It is a "Stillness" that is perfectly still and always present when seen and sensed and when not seen at all at dark times ... much like the shining moon is always present in the sky even when hidden by clouds in the dark night.

So, this Practice is founded upon coming to know that Stillness on the cushion and off ... sitting, standing, walking, running or flying through the air ... sweeping in and sweeping out both inside and out.

Something like that.

Gassho, J

PS - By the way, looks like we will be off to China around December to bring our little girl home. We received word of a little girl, and some photos ... and all is looking like it will happen this time. I will write more when the day gets closer. I am Still within, but my wife and my expectant hearts are going pitter-pat.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Originally Posted by Jundo

PS - By the way, looks like we will be off to China around December to bring our little girl home. We received word of a little girl, and some photos ... and all is looking like it will happen this time. I will write more when the day gets closer. I am Still within, but my wife and my expectant hearts are going pitter-pat.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)

Originally Posted by Ray

Thanks Very Much Jundo,

You have explained things very clearly.

This all sounds like a very deep eternal stillness.

An "Eternal" Stillness, perhaps, that shines right through-and-through all human images of eternal or not eternal, changing or anything to change, shallow or deep, all sounds loud or soft or totally quiet.